and docile Asiatic expression, which renders any muscular tension
impossible, and gives utterance only to inspiring and attractive
candor. Her mouth was possibly a line too large, and her brow was
unwrinkled as that of a child. The lower part of her face was very
full, and was joined by full undulations, altogether feminine however
in their character, to a throat which was large and somewhat distended
at the middle, like that of the old Greek statues. Her glance had the
expression of the moonlight of her country rather than of its sun.
It was the expression of timidity mingled with confidence in the
indulgence of another, emanating from a forgetfulness of her own
nature. In fine, it was the image of good-feeling, impressed as well
on her air as on her heart, and which seem confident that others are
like her. It was evident that this woman, who was yet so agreeable,
must in her youth have been most attractive. She yet had what the
people (the language of which is so expressive) call the _seed of
beauty_, that _prestige_, that ray, that star, that essence, that
indescribable something, which attracts, charms, and enslaves us. When
she saw me, her embarrassment and blushes enabled me to contemplate
her calmly and to feel myself at once at ease with her. I begged her
to sit down at once on an orange-box over which was thrown a Syrian
mat, and to encourage her sat down in front of her. Her blushes
continued to increase, and she passed her dimpled but rather large
hand more than once over her eyes. She did not know how to begin
nor what to say. I sought to give her confidence, and by one or two
questions assisted her in opening the conversation she seemed both to
wish for and to fear."

[This girl is Reine-Garde, a peasant woman, attracted by a passionate
love of his poetry to visit Lamartine. She unfolds to him much that is
exquisitely reproduced in Genevieve. The romance bids fair to be one